MDIA Students Create Audiobooks & Win Multiple Awards

Over the the past several years MDIA music production students under the supervision of Kyle P. Snyder, a Lecturer in the School of Media Arts & Studies, have worked side-by-side staff at WOUB Public Media and cast members from the Athenian Berean Community (ABC) Players to create a series of audiobooks / audio dramas.

There was a time, before images graced our televisions (or televisions even sat in our living rooms), that radio dramas were the primary source of entertainment throughout the land. A dramatic performance including an array of music, sound effects, and dialogue; the actors themselves conveyed the writers intent in lieu of visual elements.

Radio dramas and serials like these recorded by our MDIA students once flooded the airwaves bringing mystery, drama and thrills into the living rooms of thousands of people. War Of The Worlds caused the country to panic thinking that we had been invaded by aliens from outer space. Detectives like Sam Spade, Sherlock Holmes and Philip Marlowe made their first baby steps off the printed page and onto the airwaves in these dramas.

Recorded over the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years and now released to the public, this exciting partnership has allowed students the opportunity to learn dramatic audio production and provides listeners the opportunity to hear dramatic performance in a form seldom-heard today. Additionally, students have found their newly acquired skills transfer directly into podcast and broadcast production, markets where skilled engineers are consistently in demand.

Media Arts & Studies students have released The Ransom of Red Chief by O Henry (project details), and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (project details), while Bathysphere by Arch Oboler is awaiting release. The Ransom of Red Chief and The Lottery have won back-to-back First Place awards within the Media Arts & Studies Category at the Ohio University Student Expo in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

For MDIA audio students interested in learning more about exciting projects like these at Ohio University, please contact Kyle P. Snyder at snyderk@ohio.edu.